Why Don’t My Sweet Peas Flower – How To Get Sweet Peas Blooming

Why Don’t My Sweet Peas Flower – How To Get Sweet Peas Blooming

My sweet pea flowers are not blooming! It can be frustrating when you’ve done everything you can think of to help your flowers thrive, but they refuse to bloom. Let’s look at a checklist of the requirements for a sweet pea to bloom.

Why Don’t My Sweet Peas Flower?

Sweet pea flowers not blooming? There are several reasons why this happens. To pinpoint the cause in your plant, here are some possibilities to look for:

Are your sweet peas getting enough light? Sweet peas should have direct sunlight for six to eight hours every day. The more light the plants have, the better they flower. And speaking of light, they prefer long days. The ideal day length is 16 hours, followed by eight hours of darkness. Day length isn’t critical, but bear in mind that they may not do their absolute best without long days.

Are you fertilizing them right? All they really need is a little compost, and they won’t even need that if you’re growing them in rich soil. If they get too much nitrogen, they produce lush green foliage at the expense of flowers. Phosphorus, on the other hand, encourages flowers. Lawn fertilizer has a high nitrogen content, so keep it away from your sweet peas.

Are you deadheading your sweet peas? Blossoms should be plucked off as soon as they fade to keep the plant from forming a seed pod. Flowering slows and might even stop if the plants form pods. You don’t have to stand constant watch over them, but visit them every few days to remove the spent blossoms. You might find that you enjoy the task. Take your pruners along so you can gather a few flowers to enjoy indoors.

How to Get Sweet Peas Blooming Again

Of the three factors we’ve discussed, deadheading is the easiest one to fix once you’ve made a mistake. You’ll be surprised how soon you’ll see blossoms once you start deadheading neglected plants.

If you’ve got no blooms on sweet peas because of poor light, you can transplant them to a sunnier location. Bear in mind, though, that sweet peas don’t like to be transplanted in hot weather. In fact, they’ll often die back once the temperatures rise.

Getting blooms on sweet peas once they’ve been hit with high nitrogen fertilizer is more challenging. There is nothing you can add to the soil to correct the problem completely, but adding a high phosphorus fertilizer or bone meal may help some. It might also help to water them as often as possible. Just be careful not to let them become soggy or waterlogged.